Intellectual property law is good. Excess in intellectual property law is not. This blog is about excess in Canadian and international copyright law, trademarks law and patent law. I practice IP law with Macera & Jarzyna, LLP in Ottawa, Canada. I've also been in government and academe. My views are purely personal and don't necessarily reflect those of my firm or any of its clients. Nothing on this blog should be taken as legal advice.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Big Fat Canadian Wedding "Tax" to Increase by Further 333%? Other Resoundingly Unpopular Proposals at the Copyright Board?

Well, it seems that
Re:Sound is not content with its big
fat Canadian wedding "tax" that ranges up to $39.33 (double to $78.66 with
dancing). They now want a 333% increase to $131.10 and $262.19 respectively.
How they come up with such precise figures as $262.19 is very mysterious – but it might make it look to some, at least, as if somebody actually thought about this and did a careful calculation.

The newly
published proposed tariffalso contains a proposed increase of up to 708% over existing rates that retailers and other establishments which provide their own
background music could be forced to pay.

No doubt the rest of the
46 pages of proposed tariffs contain many other unpleasant surprises. One
wonders why Re:Sound does this every year now, or so it seems. When they
propose big fat tariffs that require long and expensive hearings, it should be
the case that such tariffs last for a long time. This is the fourth background
music proposed tariff in four years. Whose interest does this serve? Background
music – whatever it may be – and the background music business doesn’t change
very much or very often. The background music file is a slow and seemingly endless "dance" of its own at the Copyright Board, in which I am one of many lawyers and self-represented parties that are involved.

Objectors have until August 8 2012 to file objections. After that, they can worry about where to find the six or seven figures usually necessary to fight a Copyright Board case to the point of an actual hearing. Re:Sound, of course, doesn't have to worry. It has tens of millions in assured annual revenues from its previous tariffs, which it can spend to get new and richer ones.